I'm not sure why people keep citing how they wrote songs in the 80s as how they should do things now. In the 80s they were all in their 20s. They are near 60 now, they aren't going to act and behave like they did in their 60s. It's unrealistic to expect them to.

Even in terms of travel - there is no need for them to travel together, they want their own privacy. It's not even really a "they're rich and detached" thing either. Just like people outgrow having roommates and start to want their own place later into their 20s and 30s same with these guys. Duff and Slash aren't chasing a fix of something together all the time anymore, they don't need to be palling around the whole time. It's not 92.

They wrote a bunch of instrumental shit in 94-96. Axl has whatever his shadow lineup produced in 95 plus his vault from the CD sessions where by all accounts he has 1-2 albums of vocals if not more. Duff and Slash have stuff they did with Izzy pre VR. If Axl has been willing to record again (and according to Fortus he was recording vocals in 2014 and we know he did that cartoon song post reunion so it's all possible) then there is a wealth of stuff to work with. I'd also rather hear what was worked on when they were 15-25 years younger, were pissed off at each other and had something to say.

They don't need to get in a room and spend hours together writing music. They're not 25 anymore.

And hell who knows, they still go to rehearsals and soundchecks together and may jam about a bit during that. Some ideas can come from that too.